I get this question all the time.  And, after people are using ACT, I hear, “is this the best solution for me?”.  Both questions are very tough to answer except that I can say that those who do switch from ACT to another CRM package continually refer back to core ACT features that they miss with other software.  When I discuss the possible solutions with people, I always come back to these basic issues:

Does this mean that I think ACT is the best there is? No!  Does this mean that I think ACT offers the most features for the least amount of money?  Maybe.

Well, I hope this helps your decision a little.  Please feel free to contact Fast to discuss all your options.

AVG released a update last week which reports a Trojan virus in certain QuickBooks and then moves them to the virus vault.  After this action, QuickBooks will not open.  After research, Fast recommends the following fix:

Follow these instructions to update AVG to the latest virus definition:

1. Open the AVG Anti-Virus User Interface
2. Click on the Update now button on the left part of the AVG user interface
   or
3. From the Tools menu, select Update

Important: Always make sure to download the latest virus updates so that you are always protected

To set up an exception in the AVG Anti-virus settings to prevent the QuickBooks directory from being scanned:

1. Close QuickBooks
2. Open AVG Anti-Virus User Interface
3. Double-click Resident Shield.
4. Click Manage Exceptions
5. Click Add Path on the right and add the path C:\Program Files\Intuit. (If QuickBooks is installed to a different folder, please add that folder path.)
6. Click OK, then click Save Changes

If necessary, you may need to restore any QuickBooks files that AVG put into it’s Virus Vault.

To check to see if any of the QuickBooks files are in the vault and restore them:

1. Open AVG Anti-Virus User Interface
2. Click History from the top menu bar and select Virus Vault
3. Locate any QuickBooks files and select one file at a time
   • Possible files include: qb.exe, qbw32.exe, qbdbmgr.exe, qbdbmgrn.exe
4. Click Restore located at the bottom of the window
5. Once finished restoring all QuickBooks files, click Close
6. Close AVG Anti-Virus User Interface

Reboot your computer and now you should now be able to open QuickBooks.

Numerous news outlets have named 2010 “The Year of the Tablet” because of the sheer number of tablets expected to hit shelves. Apple unveiled the most anticipated one of all this week, but the iPadis only one of many. Business advisory firm Deloitte expects tablets to sell tens of millions of units this year alone.  Fast PC Pros is trying to see what options buyers have.

In the wake of the iPad’s announcement, it’s useful to take a look at the tablets that will soon be competing with it. None can compare when it comes to hype, but what are these other tablets going to offer.

Apple iPad– Apple did a great job of making the iPad a media-centric device. It handles music, pictures and video just like the iPhone, but makes the viewing experience even better with a 9.7-inch multitouch screen designed for a wide viewing angle. It runs all of the 140,000 apps available for the iPhone, too. It comes with Wi-Fi and some models include 3G connectivity with a special data plan that provides unlimited data for $30 per month with no contract, easily one of the most attractive features of the device. Apple also had the foresight to make a keyboard dock for the device. Inside is a special 1GHz processor designed by Apple. It’s difficult to know how it performs before the device comes out, but early reports say it’s quite fast. The iPad starts at $500 for 16GB of storage with no 3G (due late March 2010) and goes up to $830 for a 64GB with 3G (due late April 2010).

Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid– The IdeaPad U1 looks like a notebook at first, but don’t be fooled. It’s actually a hybrid, meaning it can switch between tablet and laptop mode. In tablet mode, the11.6-inch touchscreen shows a Linux operating system, running on a Snapdragon processor (a power-efficient microprocessor made by Qualcomm that is showing up in many smartphones). But if you take the tablet and dock it with the included physical keyboard, it switches to a Windows 7 laptop that runs on an Intel Core 2 Duo CULV processor. While it’s attractive to have the best of both worlds, the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid is expected to be around $1,000 and won’t come out until the second half of 2010.

Archos 9 PC Tablet – Archos has been making tablet-like media devices for years, and the Archos 9 has been available for over half a year. However, Archos’ history of tablet making hasn’t made the Archos 9 better than the competition. The 9-inch screen is resistive, meaning it can’t support multitouch gestures. The tablet runs Windows 7, but it’s only the Starter Edition. Even with these meager features, the device still costs $550.

Fusion Garage JooJoo– The JooJoo is another tablet that has beat other manufacturers to the punch. It’s also one of the largest tablets, with a 12-inch capacitive touchscreen that supports multitouch gestures. The JooJoo runs differently than most of the other tablets. Its operating system is basically just a Web browser designed to be used almost exclusively for Web-related tasks. Instead of software, the JooJoo uses sites with productivity apps, such as Google’s Gmail and Google Docs, to accomplish tasks. The JooJoo is available now for $500.

Haleron iLet 10– Haleron might not be well known, but it seems to have put together a respectable Windows 7 tablet. One of the most attractive features in the iLet 10 is the Intel N450 Atom processor, which is an energy-efficient chip designed for tablets and netbooks that also contains a graphics processor so the device can handle video and other media better. The 10-inch iLet is also fairly customizable, letting customers add additional features like bigger storage, 3G Internet connectivity, GPS and more. The cost of additional features can make the price vary anywhere from $420 to more than $900.

Notion Ink Adam– The Adam was one of the big surprises at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. It was sleek, the screen was beautiful and it seemed well made. The Adam blurs the lines between tablet and e-reader. Its screen can turn off the backlight for reading e-books, making it easier on the eyes. But when the backlight is on, the 10-inch display is quite beautiful and very responsive to touch. The inclusion of the new Tegra 2 processor means the device should also handle media quite well. The Notion Ink Adam is slated for release in June of 2010 and will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $300.

Entourage Edge– The Edge was another darling of CES, and coincidentally is another device that blurs the definition of a tablet. The company calls it a dualbook because it looks like a laptop but both sides of the device are screens instead of a screen on one side and a keyboard on the other. On the left is a 9.7-inch e-paper display, like the dozens of other e-readers out there, and on the left is a 10-inch LCD display, just like any laptop. The LCD screen is used for Web access and using applications, and e-books can then be sent over to the e-paper screen for easy reading. Navigation is done through a combination of stylus and finger on the touchscreen. The entourage Edge will sell for $490 in March of this year.

ICD Vega – The Vega is different from the competition mostly in size. The touchscreen display is 15.6-inches, more than twice as big as some tablets on this list. Screen real estate isn’t the only nice thing about the device. A Tegra processor, 32GB of storage, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity make it a capable media device. Unfortunately, it’s only destined for sale on the T-Mobile network in the UK for now.

Viewsonic VTablet – The VTablet was just barely announced a week ago. Many details about the device are still unclear, but it seems fairly generic. The 9-inch touchscreen, 4GB of storage, lack of 3G connectivity and 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor certainly don’t make it stand out in the crowd, though some people will like that it runs the Android operating system. The VTablet has an estimated price of $450 but no release date.

The HP Multitouch Tablet– If “HP Multitouch Tablet” doesn’t sound like a very catchy product name, it’s because this tablet doesn’t have an official name yet. It was unveiled during the Microsoft press conference at CES 2010. All we know for sure is that it runs Windows 7, the display is multitouch capable and it’s at least partially intended for reading e-books. HP plans to release the tablet in mid-2010 for less than $500.

Acer Tablet– Shortly before the iPad unveiling, Acer announced its intentions to sell a tablet sometime this year, but gave very few details about it. Acer’s Chairman, J.T. Wang, mentioned the device would be inspired by the Apple iPad and then hinted there could be an app store coming as well.

ASUS EeePad– One the day of the Apple iPad announcement, ASUS confirmed its rumored tablet device would indeed be coming this year. ASUS didn’t provide many details on the device aside from mentioning it would have an ARM processor, 3G connectivity and have an interface inspired by the iPhone.

It’s Likely

Freescale Tablet – The most interesting part about the Freescale Tablet is the price. At $200, it would be far cheaper than any other tablet, real or anticipated. The 7-inch Freescale tablet can dock with a keyboard and comes with Freescale’s own 1GHz processor. As expected for such a price, the rest of the hardware won’t turn a lot of heads. The Android operating system and 3G connectivity are the only competitive features. There is no word on an actual release for the product. It appears Freescale may be shopping around for a carrier network to subsidize the device.

Dell Streak –Dell has shown the Streak to reporters and industry executives, but has released no details other than that it has a 5-inch touchscreen and runs on Android.

Pegatron Tablet– A company called Pegatron briefly showed a tablet at CES. Because Pegatron is a spin-off of ASUSTek, it’s possible this device is similar to the ASUS EeePad. The specs seem to be different, though. The Pegatron tablet was reported to have an 11-inch touchscreen, Windows 7, an Intel Atom processor and a planned retail price of $500.

MSI Tablet – MSI showed off a fully formed tablet at CES but only confirmed the new Tegra 2 chip inside. The MSI tablet is thicker than other tablets, which could leave room for powerful hardware and a big battery, but also makes it feel clunky in comparison. From the CES demo it’s clear the MSI Tablet is running the Android platform, which also opens the device up to a myriad of apps and other media enhancements.

ICD Ultra–The Ultra is smaller than the ICD Vega mentioned above, with just a 7-inch touchscreen, but is ideal as an Internet-connected media device. The Ultra seems close to production, with solid specs like a Tegra 2 processor, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and Android operating system. There is no release date, but the Ultra is expected to be around $250.

It’s Just a Concept

Foxconn Tablet– Shown just briefly during an NVIDIA press conference at CES, the Foxconn tablet was barely acknowledged, let alone explained. The fact that it was in the NVIDIA press event indicates the tablet contains the new Tegra 2 chip from NVIDIA, but after that it looks pretty generic.

Compal Tablet– The Compal tablet was passed around at CES, but company reps acknowledged the device was little more than a prototype concept.

HTC Tablet – HTC, a popular smartphone manufacturer, was rumored to be designing a tablet. Then the company confirmed it had indeed been designing a tablet but was postponing the designs indefinitely in order to focus on smartphones.

Microsoft Courier – Months ago several video renderings of a special folding tablet design showed up and wowed everyone. The design was clean, the interface new but simple. It was accompanied by juicy details from a supposed mole privy to the design process, too. But since then there has been no new information and no indication that the device is nearing completion.

So…as you can see, everyone wants a piece of the market.  Keep in mind, it is still true.  The Mac products tend to work better as a Mac.  Example, you cannot use the USB on a PC to charge the iPad.  The other thing to keep in mind is that they are all designed more for the Internet, browsing, light email, etc.  than they are for business apps.  Fast feels the best bet is to wait for the next generation iPad and the others to hit the market and and evolve into what the public wants.

Who needs another Internet mapping program.  Well, this might be worth checking out.  Bing #D Maps offers the same street maps, satellite maps and birds eye view maps but, you can now overlay additional features like traffic cams, points of interest pictures and much more.  The graphic below shows many of the overlay features and there are more every day.

I personally like the traffic cams.  It shows all the available cams on the map you are currently viewing and with a couple clicks, you can see the traffic movement in real time.

This new service will make Bing my choice for mapping.  At Fast PC Pros, we are always on the watch for new technology to make your life easier.

Check it out.

Intel is integrating the largest number of processing cores onto one chip in its history, a boon for server makers looking to squeeze more performance into less space. 

Servers using the Xeon 7500 can use up to 256 chips per server, Intel said.  

Like other Intel Core i series processors, the Xeon 7500 features a technology called “hyper-threading,” which can double the number of tasks–or threads–a processor can execute. So, an 8-core processor can handle 16 threads. This technology is not offered on prior-generation Core 2 chips.  

Intel is also supporting more memory. New servers based on the 7500 will boast a four-fold increase in memory capacity, with support for up to 1 terabyte in 4-processor configurations.  

The Xeon 7500 follows an announcement from from Advanced Micro Devices on Monday of a 12-core processor, which combines two 6-core die.  

“Both AMD and Intel are demonstrating huge leaps in performance per watt,” said Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat. McGregor said this represents the biggest challenge to high-end RISC server suppliers to date. RISC, or reduced instruction set computer, is chip technology offered in servers from Sun Microsystems and IBM.  

But it’s not just about more cores. Intel, like AMD, is adding security and reliability features that make servers from companies like Hewlett-Packard and Dell more attractive to customers who may have opted for RISC-based servers, according to McGregor.  

And both Intel and AMD have increased the number of memory channels, which is a requirement for the most performance sensitive servers, McGregor said.  

Pricing for the Xeon 7500 will range from $1,980 for a 6-core X7542 to $3,692 to the 8-core X7560. This contrasts with a 12-core 2.3GHz AMD 6100 series chip priced at $1,386. But individual chip pricing has less significance for servers than for laptops and desktops, according to McGregor. Server suppliers price their systems based on a variety of criteria that diminish the impact of individual chip cost.

Server makers slated to supply Xeon 7500-based systems include Cisco, Cray, Dell, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, NEC, Oracle, and SGI.

Xobni integrates into your Outlook installation and shows you more about your e-mails than Outlook can itself. For each person who sends you e-mail, it shows you who else they communicate with a lot (their de facto social networks), and it finds their phone number from inside their e-mails. It also shows you all conversation threads you’ve participated in with the person, and all the attachments they’ve sent you. You can drill into message threads (very useful), and it has a snappy e-mail search engine built in (nice, but redundant). 

Unlike many other Outlook add-ons that I’ve tried, this one seems to add its functionality without dragging down Outlook’s performance, or worse, crashing it. It is useful and it doesn’t get in the way. There’s no reason not to try it. And it’s free

1) Any time you see an e-mail that says “forward this on to ‘10′ (or however many) of your friends”, “sign this petition”, or “you’ll get bad luck” or “you’ll get good luck” or “you’ll see something funny on your screen after you send it” or whatever. . it almost always has an e-mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and e-mails of those folks you forward to.  The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of ‘active’ e-mail addresses to use in SPAM e-mails or sell to other spammers.  Even when you get e-mails that demand you send the e-mail on if you’re not ashamed of God/Jesus. . .that is e-mail tracking, and they are playing on our conscience.  These people don’t care how they get your e-mail addresses. . .just as long as they get them.   Also, e-mails that talk about a missing child or a child with an incurable disease “how would you feel if that was your child”. . . .e-mail tracking.  Ignore them and don’t participate!

2) Almost all e-mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards.  All it was, and all any of this type of e-mail is, is a way to get names and ‘cookie’ tracking information for telemarketers and spammers. . . .to validate active e-mail accounts for their own profitable purposes.

You can do your Friends and Family members a GREAT favor by sending this information to them.  You will be providing a service to your friends.  And you will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam e-mails in the future!

Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name(s) to those types of listing regardless how inviting they might sound!  Or make you feel guilty if you don’t! It’s all about getting e-mail addresses and nothing more.

 You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT!
 
Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later and very possibly a virus attached!  Plus, we are helping the spammers get rich!  Let’s not make it easy for them!
 
ALSO:  e-mail petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other organization….i.e. social security, etc.  To be acceptable, petitions must have a “signed signature” and full address of the person signing the petition, so this is a waste of time and you are just helping the e-mail trackers.

Microsoft has been working closer with phone manufacturers this time around. In previous version of Windows Mobile, software manufacturers had to write their software for a vast number of phones. This time, there will be 3 classes. The large, touch screen phones, the slide out keyboard phones and the small “candybar” style phones. This is good news for those writing apps for the mobile platform. It is bad however for owners of earlier Windows Mobile phones. Windows Mobile 6.5 will recieve future updates but will not be upgradable.

For those that have a phone contract coming due, you may want to wait to see what the new devices have to offer.

If you not sure if Windows Mobile is right for you, contact Fast for advice and opinions on the different platforms available.

Fast is a computer consulting company located in Minneapolis, MN and specialized in Contact Management and syncronization with all the different mobile devices.

CRM solutions have either been the driving force or a disaster for many businesses over the years. The earliest implementations were little more than a database of supplier and customer addresses and contact information with limited notation/tracking functionality. The latest applications seem to have all the bells and whistles (and then some) to make access of information easier than ever for employees within an organisation.
There are many various flavours of what can be termed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications — from entry-level contact management solutions, to salesforce automation, all the way up to full-blown packages that interface with inventory systems and back-end accounting packages to give the users full “at-a-glance” histories of their entire transaction with suppliers, customers, staff, and production/assembly plants.

Fast can help sort through the fog to help you find the right package. Check out this article for more information.
http://bit.ly/cEKc7X

While there are many companies offerring Online Contact Management solutions, Fast has tried to search through them and find the best. There are two basic catagories to these solutions. Free and those with a monthly fee.

The free solutions tested were Google Apps and Zoho CRM. Both offer basic data fields, shared calendars and shared document storage. They are a great solution for a small business that really only needs to SHARE information.

The solutions which charge a monthly fee offer some distict differences from the their free counterparts. First, they offer much more customization to the fields of information that they store allowing them to become much more specific to a perticular need. Second, and most importantly, they offer a “history” of items completed with a specific contact. This is crucial when multiple people are dealing wit the same contact. This will show when an email or letter was sent or when a meeting was held and what took place. This is critical information as a business gets larger and busier.

Some of the other benefits to the monthy plans are the additional software they provide. An example offers ACT Online, Word and Outlook. The local cost to have this software is over $750 per user while he online fee is $30/month with a $50 set-up fee.

As you decide which system is right for you, these are just some of the issues to keep in mind.